bike culture blogged

OMFG, my step-father was right! All those liberal, bike riding hippies are a secret plot to steal our tax dollars! Maybe Toyota was Detroit’s demise after all (and not rocketing petrol prices kicking down the house of cards that the full-size SUV built). Next thing you know, the Japanese will be landing wave after wave of these Communist bikes, like this one in Hatagaya.

This is undoctored photographic evidence, the real deal. Bike commuting is the same as communism; “commuter” means “communist.” You heard it here first, folks.

See other posts tagged:

9 Comments

Iâ€™m in Japan on business right now, and bikes similar to this one are all over the place. They are almost universally a step-through frame, and come equipped with a basket, a rack, full fenders, and a rear wheel lock. Theyâ€™re certainly not nice bikes in the normal sense of the word, but theyâ€™re impressively full-featured for use as commuter bikes!

If you’re in Japan now, please grab as many snapshots as you can of the commuter bikes out there. Last time I was in Tokyo I was staring at the incredible designs all over the place none of which I can find here in the states. More information on them, please!

The Japanese do irony also, probably better than us Americans with our Che shirts and Mao hats. The communist party is active and very visible in Japan, with the party consistently receiving about 10% of the vote in elections.

My late grandmother hated communists and wanted the US to nuke the Soviet Union for taking Sakhalin Island from Japan—it’s the only thing I saw her get excited about. Several other people in northern Japan had (and still have) a very strong animosity against Russia.